Jul 28

Video: Exile Vilify (A Lego Portal 2 Music Video)

When I was looking around on YouTube a few days ago I came across an interesting Lego animated film called “Exile Vilify”. It was about the Portal games and it went through how Aperture Science was started and how GLaDOS was created and it was all animated in Lego.

The video was made for a “Portal 2” music video contest and all entries had to have the song “Exile Vilify” in them. The person who made this only had 2 weeks to make this whole video and I’ve got to say it’s really good. The animation in this is really good but it seems to have a few flaws, like sometimes the green screen looks like it was a little rushed. Considering he put the whole video together in 2 weeks I think a few flaws can be overlooked. The Glados model in this is superb, they nailed her in this video and she just looks amazing. In this video it also shows you who painted all the paintings, if you played “Portal” and “Portal 2” you will know what I’m talking about.

The video makes more sense if you have played the Portal games, also apparantly there is a comic that this was based on I think it’s called “Lab Rat”; Comment below if you have read “Lab Rat”.

Overall I think “Exile Vilify” is a really well made Lego video and I think you should check it out, especially If you like the Portal games and Lego :)

David “Big Geek” McVay’s Note: This is a sensation Lego animation and really speaks to all of us Portal 2 players.

Jul 28

Trailer: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Now this looks fun, it is Aardman Animation’s latest stop motion animation film called “The Pirates! Band of Misfits”. I love this kind of stuff.

Jul 27

Lego Super Heroes Theme Announced!

A few days ago Lego announced their new “Lego Super Heroes” theme sets at Comic-Con. That’s right, Lego has partnered up with DC and Marvel Comics for these great new sets. This will mean they will have such characters as Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and many more as mini-figures!

But that’s not all! Promotional sets were distributed in San Diego’s Comic-Con, which means that more than 3,000 lucky fans got Batman & Green Lantern mini figures – I’m so Jealous :p You can see photos of the prototypes at this Flickr stream.

There is also a competition running on the “Lego Super Heroes” site that allows fans to submit videos and photos to win a possible trip to LegoLand and Warner Bros Studios!!

Jill Wilfert, Vice President of licensing and entertainment for the Lego Group, said the following:

“This partnership gives builders a chance to recreate the characters, vehicles and worlds of some of the most iconic super heroes, so they can relive the action and even customize it, a proven and winning formula in Lego construction.”

So shoot over to the official website to find out more about the themes and competition. They have also released a Lego Batman teaser for “Lego Super Heroes” you can see it here:

Jul 26

Review: Captain America The First Avenger

Of all the Marvel comic adaptations, I most worried about Captain America because this is a hard comic to adapt. Steve Rogers AKA Captain America is essentially a flag waving, patriotic boy scout and that works in printed form but could end up being a cheesy corn dog on screen. True “Thor” is about an Asgardian thunder god but at it’s core it is essentially a fantasy film and we have done that before, so I had a lot of trust that it would work. Captain America however is rooted in the real world and it would be really easy to make this a nauseatingly patriotic Michael Bay movie.

So this brings us to “Captain America: The First Avenger”, the latest in the current series of Marvel films that lead into next year’s “The Avengers”. Did director Joe Johnston (“Jumanji” & “The Rocketeer”) manage to bring Captain Steve Rogers to the big screen successfully? The answer is simple, yes he absolutely did. Johnston and his writers, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, have found the balance to bring Cap to life and one of the prime reasons this works so well was the decision to take the character back to his origins and set it in the World War II era. It would have been easy for the filmmakers to have a short World War II intro and then bring Cap into the modern world like the 1990 Albert Pyun version but we probably would have ended up with a similar mess. Continue reading

Jul 25

Film Actually Ep048 (140) – The Conspirator

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Hosts: David McVay & Josh Philpott and guest Richard Gray

This week David and Josh are again joined by Richard Gray (theReelbits.com) for a review of Robert Redford’s new film “The Conspirator”. They also take a look at some entertainment news, including the new teasers for “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man”. Plus an all new Lists of Five: Five Conspiracy Films. Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

If you are an iTunes user, please leave a review. Your comments (good or bad) help us improve the show. This show carries an explicit tag due to infrequent coarse language.

Listen or download it here or subscribe to it on iTunes

Make sure you check out our other fine podcast Geek Actually for all your tech and geek culture needs.

*Update 31/07/2012 – Film Actually was a split off from the main Geek Actually show and originally maintained numbering continuity with that show. That logic no longer works as the shows have become two unique entities, so we have gone back and re-numbered the Film Actually shows to reflect their true episode number. This show is now officially episode 48 but when you listen to the show you will hear it referred to as episode 140, this is why. Sorry about any confusion or inconvenience.

Film Actually is recorded live every Saturday. Go to geekactually.com/live for the schedule and to watch it

Your show notes:

What We’ve Been Watching

Avoid “Bad Teacher” and “5 Days of War”.

Feature Film Review

‘The Conspirator’ directed by Robert Redford and written by James D. Solomon based on a story by James D. Solomon and Gregory Bernstein. It stars James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Justin Long, Danny Huston, Colm Meaney, and Evan Rachel Wood.

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son. – Anonymous on IMDB

Our Verdict: A great historical drama about a part of history that isn’t often talked about. Well worth watching.

Watch the trailer here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/theconspirator/

Entertainment Buzz

The first teaser for “The Dark Knight Rises”.
https://geekactually.com/2011/07/19/first-teaser-the-dark-knight-rises/

Robert Rodriguez grabs the rights to Heavy Metal.
http://www.badassdigest.com/heavymetal

Netflix wants to come to Australia, this is some of the best news I’ve ever heard.
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/07/netflix-seeks-australian-isp-partner-for-movie-streaming/

Ridley Scott says he’ll never work without 3D again.
http://www.slashfilm.com/ridley-scott-work-3d/

The first teaser for “The Amazing Spider-Man”.
https://geekactually.com/2011/07/21/first-look-trailer-the-amazing-spider-man/

The Harry Potter phenomenon continues – records are smashed and it’s still going.
http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3217&p=.htm

Guillermo del Toro to direct Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson.
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=79906

Well, something good came out of the success of the Transformers films.
http://www.movieweb.com/comic-con/2011/news/sdcc-2011-voltron-live-action-movie-coming-from-relativity-media

Lists of Five

This week our Lists of Five: Five Conspiracy Films. Nothing is more fun than making things more complicated than they seem to be or huge complicated cover ups. List five great conspiracy films.

Just a reminder, because we never like to just make things easy on ourselves, our lists are not necessarily top five lists, they are more or a less a list of film recommendations within the theme of the list.

The Rest…

David’s “My Year With Movies” blog is on Tumbr

Join us on our Facebook Fan Page: facebook.com/GeekActually or follow Geek Actually on Twitter @geekactually

Make sure you check out our new range of Geek Actually swag at cafepress.com.au/geekactually

Find More of Richard Gray at theReelBits.com or DVDbits.com or follow him on Twitter @DVDbits

The Reel Junkies podcast can be found at weekendronin.com

Brad and Charlie (formerly of “Movie Fan House”) are back, their new site is ReboundRadio.com and their new podcast is “Good Day Sir!”

Rachelle is over at The Funky Film Show, Thursdays on Radio Freemantle 107.9 FM or radiofreemantle.com

Find out about Josh’s other site and to listen to his other show DLC Live go to RawDLC.com or follow him on Twitter @DoGM3At

Check out Nicholas ‘The Little Geek’ McVay’s Lego animations at YouTube.com/NickyMcVay

Our show logo is by Josh Spencer over at Spencer Cartoons at  http://attackninja.blogspot.com

Our opening clip this week is from the film “The Pirates of Silicon Valley”.

We close the show with the End Titles track from “The Conspirator” from the soundtrack by Mark Isham.

Jul 24

REPLAY – Geek Actually Live Video Shows for July 23rd, 2011

Here are this week’s live shows presented in the same order that we recorded them. We start with the all new Geek Actually and then move onto Film Actually. Because the show is live, you get it here with all the mistakes intact.

This week on Geek Actually, David and Josh are again joined by Richard Gray from theReelBits.com for a look at the weird and wonderful world of the geek. This week topics include the R18+ rating for games is a go in Australia, Apple’s latest operating system, a fake Apple Store in China, the LOLspeak Bible and are Microsoft and Sony teaming up? We discuss these topics and many more plus our picks of the week and a live demonstration of the self heating can of coffee.

This week David and Josh are again joined by Richard Gray (theReelbits.com) for a review of Robert Redford’s new film “The Conspirator”. They also take a look at some entertainment news, including the new teasers for “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man”. Plus an all new Lists of Five: Five Conspiracy Films. Film Actually is the official movie podcast of geekactually.com.

Check the individual audio show posts for the show notes. Watch the videos below.

The Geek Actually podcasts are recorded live every Saturday from 12pm (AEST) or UTC +10 at geekactually.com/live Continue reading